Archive for June 10, 2012

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New York, NY - On the map showing the dozens of bike-share stations that will soon freckle northwestern Brooklyn, there is just one neighborhood-size void in the network: the ultra-Orthodox Jewish enclave of South Williamsburg.
It won't be the first time religious residents in the area, many of whom are members of the Satmar Hasidic movement, have won exemption from citywide bicycle...

Waterloo, Ontario - President Barack Obama couldn't bear to part with his BlackBerry. Oprah Winfrey declared it one of her "favorite things." It could be so addictive that it was nicknamed "the CrackBerry."
Then came a new generation of competing smartphones, and suddenly the BlackBerry, that game-changing breakthrough in personal connectedness, looks ancient.
There is even talk that the...

Israel - Brig.-Gen. Gadi Agmon of the IDF’s manpower directorate presented proposals to the Keshev committee for combined IDF service and Torah study that are similar in style to the hesder program for national-religious men. Hesder recruits typically study Torah for three and a half years and serve in the IDF for 18 months.
Committee chairman Yohanan Plesner stated during the hearing that...

Washington - When does a smartphone make you dumb?
When you're driving.
Dialing or texting on a phone is a proven distraction when you're behind the wheel. And as "smart" as today's phones are, they can't compensate for human folly. Phone makers and software developers are making a valiant effort to create elegant technical solutions, but, try as they might, they've yet to solve the problem...

New York, NY - Walmart has hit upon a novel way to work its way into the city, on board a modified food truck run by partner company Proctor & Gamble.
For the next month, @PGmobile will, in the tradition of the great food trucks to come before it, set up shops on street corners across the five boroughs, tweeting out its location and asking for suggestions on where to go next. Eight different...

Trenton, NJ - Some experimental diabetes treatments in late testing offer patients hope of better controlling their blood sugar and weight and preventing dangerously low blood sugar, all big challenges for millions of diabetics.
Results from studies of several new diabetes medicines and insulin products, just announced at the premiere U.S. conference for diabetes specialists, likewise hold the...

New York - Councilman David G. Greenfield (D-Brooklyn) is calling on the NYPD to immediately reinstate recruit Fishel Litzman, who was dismissed from the Academy this past Friday June 8th for refusing to trim his beard, which he keeps at a short length as part of his religious beliefs as a Chasidic Jew. Mr. Litzman was just weeks away from joining the force as a rookie officer when he was...

Washington - Efforts to persuade US President Barack Obama to commute the sentence of Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard intensified over the weekend as President Shimon Peres arrived in Washington to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Obama.
The award will be presented on Wednesday at a gala event that may have been intended to paint Obama as a friend of Israel. But that strategy...

New York, NY - Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the New York Police Department's policy of street stops that has stirred outrage "should be amended, not ended."
The mayor spoke Sunday to the congregation at the First Baptist Church of Brownsville, a neighborhood in Brooklyn with one of the city's highest crime rates.
Bloomberg told worshippers that the NYPD is stepping up its efforts to treat...

Istanbul - The US blocked Israel's participation in the Global Counterterrorism Forum's (GCTF) first meeting in Istanbul on Friday, even though Israel has one of the most extensive experiences in counterterrorism in the world. A pro-Israeli source in Washington told "Globes" that Israel was excluded from the meeting because of fierce objections by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Israel...

Washington - U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today announced that after personal calls to the CEOs of Virgin America Airlines and JetBlue, he has secured commitments from these airlines to not charge families extra fees to sit together on flights.
Two weeks ago, Schumer called on the industry to refrain from charging families extra fees to sit next to children when the seats involved are...

Israel - Rabbi Pinchas Abuhatzeira, the great-grandson of the Babi Sali, is Israel's richest rabbi, with an estimated fortune of NIS 1.3 billion, according to the "Forbes Israel's" ranking of Israel's ten richest rabbis. The magazine says that the social protest hurt the fortunes of the rabbis' activities, by greatly reducing their income from donations from tycoons.
The value of a rabbi can...

Brooklyn, NY - Three hundred thousand registered Democrats have a critical mission on Primary Day this month. They must rush to the polls to choose Hakeem Jeffries for Congress.
They must do so because Jeffries is a superbly qualified candidate, and they must do so to spare New York the profound embarrassment of sending to Washington a racial bomb thrower who counts Moammar Khadafy as a...

Jerusalem - Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu credited his wife, Sara, for pushing him to execute the prisoner exchange that released Gilad Schalit from captivity in October.
“She was probably the most influential factor in my decision to bring about the release of Gilad Schalit and he has been fine since then,” Netanyahu told the German newspaper Bild.
“It was a tough decision, but...

Ramallah, West Bank - Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have been meeting quietly in recent weeks in hopes of ending a three-year standstill in peace efforts, both sides confirmed Sunday.
Officials acknowledged the agenda of the recent talks has been modest, and stressed there is no breakthrough in sight. Nonetheless, the revelations gave a small sign of hope that a formula can be found to...